Interview / TW3 and a rant
 

After reading this interview with the technical producer I realised CDProjekt still don't have a clue. http://impulsegamer.com/interviewgrzegorzrdzany.html

They can make such a great graphics but they still can't get even basic gameplay right. He also mentions the game as being "hard".

It is even easier on hard setting than TW1, using the quen sign you don't even need to drink any potions, in TW one you at least needed to drink swallow a few times.

He also mentions it involves a lot of strategy, well it is more of a click-feast than diablo 3 ( which BTW needs a lot more strategy ).

While something has been improved in combat the unresponsive controls has made it perhaps even worse than TW1 combat.

Still TW2 is a much better game than TW1 IMHO except for the end I guess. But hoping for multiple beginning of TW3 to fix that…. I don't think they'll be able to pull that off though.

Please CDProjekt fix the gameplay, you're great at interactive storytelling but you're making games not movies.

Well I would agree but cinematic rpg's are a genre of there own and there not going anywhere. Bioware made them popular and millions love it.

I didn't enjoy my first playthrough of the Witcher 2 half as much as the first game, essentially because it was missing the often beautiful and vital folk feeling from the original and instead focused upon more traditional epic themes.

The QTE's also left a bad taste in my mouth and the combat wasn't especially fun.
Furthermore the lack of overall neutrality in roleplaying options and the absence of any consequences in the relationship with Shani (if chosen from the first game) also really bothered me.

I think the influence of Bioware is noticable in the "interactive movie" feel of the second game. It certainly wasn't as unique in style as the first game.

That said, I have alot of respect for the branching paths and sheer range of choices that the game has to offer. I'm going to try my second playthrough on the Roche path sometime later in the year with all of the updates installed.
Perhaps only then, I'll have a broader perspective on the game.

I will probably play TW2 eventually. I have a personal rule. If your game features QTEs then I will not pay full price for it. If gameplay from a silly kids toy designed in the 70s is the best you can come up with, then you don't deserve my money.

Which sucks really, because CDProjekt has done so many other things right.

Don't let the presence of QTEs affect your decision to buy TW2. There's only a handful of them in the entire game.

TW2 isn't deserving of the negativity in this thread.

Ditto to that. TW2 is a wonderful game and amazing rpg. I can't remember the last game I've actually had to stop and think how should I respond to a question that could change a lot in the game. Well, aside from Planescape Torment. Which, as the whole rpg gaming world will agree, is another amazing game.

On a personal level, I also find they improved the gameplay a lot. I actually love the combat system, and how reactive you can be with all the rolls and parries. A lot better than TW1 imo.

TW2 is an amazing game and i found combat extremely fun , looks like the OP has not tried latest patches ( Quen goes out after one hit )
TW1 had a ridiculous IGNI to exploit .

I agree with JDR & co, TW2 is a great game. In fact, it was only beaten by FNV in 2011 here at the Watch: http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/article…185&ref=2&id=1

Being beaten by FNV doesn't mean much, as FNV would beat most games in recent years. TW2 is excellent in my opinion, I enjoyed it quite a bit more than TW1.

For TW3 I hope they do one more iteration on the combat and character development, and make it a bit easier to get into the story (TW2 started out a bit "what's going on here?"), but other than that - more of the same please!

I haven't played it through in dark mode in the EE, will try that, I doubt it'll fix the gameplay though. As already mentioned everything aside from gameplay is great, I did hear third chapter is improved a lot in EE though.

Sorry, but i can't agree with a single point in your rant. After all the patches combat in TW2 is quite decent for an arpg in my opinion (even quen isn't an iddqd anymore, although simply rolling away from danger is still too easy), but TW1 is overall still a much better game for me. Maybe it's the lack of unique slavic charm and atmosphere, and silly "me too!" consolized interface, but i think TW2 has lost a lot of what made the first part so good.

Nonsense. I thought the gameplay in The Witcher 2 was the best I've seen in years. Clickfest? You're on some powerful drugs there.

And for the record, I thought it was pretty hard on normal. But I'm not uberl33t like you all.

Yeah, I played on Hard and found it downright frustrating at times. That was before the patch though, and I believe the difficulty was toned down in some areas in the EE version.

You probably didn't notice that for each hit in a row Geralt makes he makes more and more damage until that damage become so insane he can kill most enemies in one click in other words clicking like crazy is a good solution in a lot of scenarios just like in TW1 ( except there you needed to time it ), and I didn't need any intelligence drugs to figure that out, perhaps however you'd need some :P I acctually did this for most combats on hard with great results… and I didn't even take any of the skills in the swords development path. I tried that a bit in another playthrough it made this approach even more effective and fast. Towards the final battles against humans ( granted I had the super overpowered weapon, but they were over in 10 speedy clicks in a row )

You must not have found the Quen exploit, in the EE this is supposed to be fixed though making it harder. I certainly hope EE will not be easier as I'm playing through the EE in dark mode now, hoping for a little tiny bit of a challange.

No need to be sorry at all, we all fourtunatly have different taste and I can see why TW one is liked more by some, for example if you count it as one playthrough it actually felt a lot longer, and it had more fleshed out and varied locations and so on. However the amount of different paths in TW2 is just amazing it only truly shines after you played it through several times.

As for combat being quite decent for a modern ARPG I could agree to that too considering how it is in most modern ARPG's, but if compare it to the other parts it sucks in comparasion. Take towards the end you get to fight two different types of enemies in the final chapter, that are extremly easy to kill, even if you don't have anything close to the best gear, ( and a couple of boss battles some of which are optional ) and only one of them is a bit challanging. Again i've heard final part is fixed in EE so I'm hoping that is true, why spend a lot of time building up your character for nothing that is just such a waste. In the beginning of the game the combat is perhaps even a bit above average, but the longer the games goes on the worse it becomes. In a good game it should become better as you learn and develop your character not worse.

My primary gripe about combat in TW2 is that the A.I. pathing is kind of ridiculous, at least it was back when I last played the game before all these recent patches and extended cut edition, etc.

I recall that if almost any enemy or group of enemies attacks, you take one or two tiny steps backwards and they can't chase you anymore, so all your health heals.